Supposed language gaffes

[hot enough]

I was reading an old thread, now closed, and there was a short discussion of grammar. A poster, who shall remain unnamed, as it isn't at all important to the discussion wrote;

For example, people often say "There's many" instead of "there are many" and it's never noticed.

There is a very good reason that it is never noticed and that is, because it is perfectly natural English. For there, here, where, how, ... the most common verb choice is the singular 'is' even with a following plural.

Examples: How's your parents? There's a couple of things ... . Here's your keys. Where's the diapers?

There are so many old grammar fables that have been passed on for centuries that are not now, nor have they ever been, rules of English grammar. 

[Omni]

10 minutes ago, hot enough said:

I was reading an old thread, now closed, and there was a short discussion of grammar. A poster, who shall remain unnamed, as it isn't at all important to the discussion wrote;

For example, people often say "There's many" instead of "there are many" and it's never noticed.

There is a very good reason that it is never noticed and that is, because it is perfectly natural English. For there, here, where, how, ... the most common verb choice is the singular 'is' even with a following plural.

Examples: How's your parents? There's a couple of things ... . Here's your keys. Where's the diapers?

There are so many old grammar fables that have been passed on for centuries that are not now, nor have they ever been, rules of English grammar. 

What's your point?

[Omni]

By d' jesus my son, if ya want's to talk some natural english well let's head off east 'till we gets to dat odder island, and we'll get a right good lesson, and if we're lucky, a fine feed of fish 'n' brews. Maybe a nip o screech too eh, if we're lucky. 

[hot enough]

34 minutes ago, Omni said:

What's your point?

My point is that it is not a grammatical mistake as the poster and many people assume. 

There are lots of these old wives tales in English. You, and everybody else were told them as they grew up and they tell their children, ... and the lies go on for centuries.

[Omni]

2 minutes ago, hot enough said:

My point is that it is not a grammatical mistake as the poster and many people assume. 

There are lots of these old wives tales in English. You, and everybody else were told them as they grew up and they tell their children, ... and the lies go on for centuries.

The few old wives tales I grew up with were written and understood if I was reading, or spoken if I was listening in very proper poetric English. And I think I have a fairly good handle on it. But den by d jesus didn't I move to Newfoundland, and learned anuder way to express meself.

And I hasten to add if anybody here is from Nfld. please take my blather as humor, not ridicule. I live in St. John's, I worked at MUN, I moved out to Tors Cove, I was friends with Chris Pratt, Edith Goodrich, Ron Hynes..(.but now I sound like a name dropper) Newfanes is a lovely language and I am glad I learned to speak some.  

[Omni]

1 hour ago, Omni said:

The few old wives tales I grew up with were written and understood if I was reading, or spoken if I was listening in very proper poetric English. And I think I have a fairly good handle on it. But den by d jesus didn't I move to Newfoundland, and learned anuder way to express meself.

And I hasten to add if anybody here is from Nfld. please take my blather as humor, not ridicule. I live in St. John's, I worked at MUN, I moved out to Tors Cove, I was friends with Chris Pratt, Edith Goodrich, Ron Hynes..(.but now I sound like a name dropper) Newfanes is a lovely language and I am glad I learned to speak some.  

Here's another wonderful thing I was lucky enough stumble into (and I mean stumble) was sitting in the basement of the Annex art gallery in St. John's and sipping a few sips of Screech whilst  Mary et al came up with the next CODCO ideas.   

[Goddess]

When I was first learning Spanish, I had a few funny times - I once told a waiter, "Buenos naches." thinking I was saying "Good Night!"  but I found out that "naches" is a slang term for the derriere.  "Noches" is night.  I had told him he had a nice bum.  

I used to work with 2 Newfie ladies and whent hey got together no one could understand what they were saying.  LOL

I love language. 

[Guest]

Headline at The Independent:

May fight's for survival

[hot enough]

Supposed language gaffe:

X Everyone brought their own lunch. X ---> Everyone brought his own lunch.

[hot enough]

Rue's "language gaffe".

"Thanks but I could care less what you think."

In,

Women Who Cover Their Faces Shouldn't Be accepted To Enter Canada!

page 23, Post ID:555

[hot enough]

This website, MLW, advertises Grammarly. Everyone should at least be advised that Grammarly is pretty much crap. 

They repeat the same old nutty grammar advice that everyone has been getting from their parents, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas for a number of centuries.

Fifty Shades of Bad Grammar Advice

A few weeks ago, the folks at the grammar-checking website Grammarly wrote a piece about supposed grammar mistakes in Fifty Shades of Grey. Despite being a runaway hit, the book has frequently been criticized for its terrible prose, and Grammarly apparently saw an opportunity to fix some of the book’s problems (and probably sell its grammar-checking services along the way).

The first problem, of course, is that most of the errors Grammarly identified have nothing to do with grammar. The second is that most of their edits not only fail to fix the clunky prose but actually make it worse.

http://www.arrantpedantry.com/tag/grammarly/

Edited June 14, 2017 by hot enough